The Sullivan Gray Series Box Set

by H. P. Bayne

  “He knew you were Lucky’s niece, didn’t he?” Sully asked.

  “My legal last name was Parsons, due to the adoption. But I blabbed the truth to him eventually, about who I was. She was all that freak talked about. Lucky this, Lucky that. Lucky, Lucky, Lucky. He wanted to find her. Said she needed his help. If only he knew.”

  “Knew what?” Dez asked.

  “Lucky was murdered shortly after she escaped Lockwood,” Sully said. “I think Rhona did it in the end, but there’s probably no way to know for sure. I guess it doesn’t matter. They were all in it together, anyway.” He focused back on Greta. “How did you get out?”

  “Lockwood? Simple. I lied. Told him I could find Lucky for him. It was the one lie he was willing to believe.”

  “What did he want with her?”

  “People said she was trying to help him find his kid. Everyone knew the story, how the little boy was kidnapped from his backyard when he was five or six. But I think it was more than that. I think he convinced himself he loved Lucky. And it wasn’t just her he wanted. It was her child. He wanted you.” Greta’s explanation stunned Sully into silence, providing her the opportunity for a quick giggle. “Funny, really. Because he had you. You were right there, under his nose a few years ago. And he didn’t even know it.”

  “But you did,” Dez said. “And you didn’t tell him. Why?” But his brother’s attention was on him, and he felt a pulse of fear in his gut.

  “I know what my mother and grandmother think of him, what they believe about his supposed curse. But I think the whole thing’s a crock of shit. Sullivan and me, we fought the same war. We survived the Blakes, other hellhole foster homes, group homes, Lockwood.” She cocked her head toward him. “You’re not my enemy, Sullivan. I’ve got nothing against you.”

  Dez snorted. “Which explains why you’ve tried to kill him twice.”

  “I didn’t set the fire at the Blakes’ because of him. All I wanted was to get back at the foster family from hell. My mom and grandma told me that’s why I was going to do it, to right a wrong from my past. They told me they’d make sure no one but the Blakes were inside. The first time I heard any different was from the cops after I was picked up. As far as today, I thought Sullivan was already dead when I started the fire. My mom said she’d given him a lethal dose of azaperone. They asked me to destroy the evidence.”

  “Hold on,” Dez said. “Sully was seven when you killed the Blakes under orders from your family. But no one came after him again until now? Why? Why now?”

  “They talked about it. They lost track of him for a few years after the fire. When they found out where he was, they learned his new foster father was a high-ranking cop, and you became one later yourself. It was too risky, so they decided to bide their time, wait for an opportunity. Then your father died, and Sullivan turned up at Lockwood a couple years ago. The name Sullivan Gray meant nothing to Gerhardt. I didn’t tell anyone about him—not Gerhardt and not my family. I knew they’d all want to know. But I’d already gotten what I needed out of life: I got my justice against the Blakes.

  “When we heard he’d died following his escape, I let my mother and grandmother enjoy the relief. But Brennan and I, we learned the truth. We saw Sullivan one day when we were in The Forks, but lost sight of him before we could find out anything more. I planned to keep it to myself, but Brennan told my mother in exchange for cash for a fix. My mother figured he’d come if you were in danger or died. As usual, Brennan and I were supposed to do it, take Sullivan once he tried to dig you out of that grave. But he had a big dog with him, so we had to find another way.”

  “And Brennan?” Dez asked. “It was you, wasn’t it? You put on scrubs and just walked in there, right past the constable on duty. And Brennan didn’t say anything because he trusted you. By the time he realized you were giving him something other than what the two of you were hooked on, it was too late. Why’d you kill him?”

  “I wasn’t planning to. I wanted him to just walk away. But something had changed in him. He kept talking about Lucienne, saying she’d never leave him alone until he helped Sullivan. He was going to tell. If I left him like that, his next conversation would have been with that cop. I may not agree with everything my family thinks or does, but they’re still my family. I needed to protect them, and I needed to protect myself. And Brennan was no angel. He was out of his mind half the time, damn near killed me not so long ago. But get one thing straight. I never wanted to kill him, and I never wanted to kill Sullivan. The Blakes, yes, and if I had the chance, I’d take Gerhardt too.”

  “So what are you doing volunteering there?” Dez asked. “If you changed your name to escape the place, why go back?”

  “That’s not why I changed it. You try living with that past hanging over your head. I wanted a fresh start, and my mother helped me get it. I still kept a part of my name, though. I wanted that much. As for volunteering, my grandmother was a patient there—and, yes, her illness is legitimate. She’s always been a little crazy, but she’s lost whatever was left of her mind. Anyway, what better way to learn about the enemy than to work alongside him? Gerhardt is next on my list, baby. I’m going to burn the place down, him inside.”

  Forbes had reached the end of his rope, pain and anger written all over him. “Greta, you stop this right now, you hear me?”

  “There’s a lot of stuff I gotta stop,” she said. And without warning, she spun, redirecting her aim at him. “Maybe I should start with you.”

  Dez was already moving in, taking advantage of the situation to rush her. Sully was a step or two behind, wanting to back up his brother, but they both stopped short at a shouted command from somewhere nearby.

  “Drop the gun! Now!”

  Sully would know that voice anywhere; it would have put a smile on his face were it not for the lingering threat. Greta shifted her attention again, this time toward Eva who was standing, gun drawn, behind a curtain of smoke at the house’s edge.

  Dez was still a couple steps away when Forbes, taking advantage of the distraction, tackled his estranged spouse from the side. The impact—Sully hoped it was the impact—caused the gun to fire, the shot earsplittingly loud in this all-but-abandoned part of town.

  Greta wasn’t a large woman but, tweaking out as she was, she had the fight in her of three people. But Dez was there now, helping Forbes restrain the woman as Eva, uniformed and on-duty, rushed forward with a set of handcuffs from her duty belt.

  Dez managed to wrest the revolver away from Greta, and he tossed it to the side before grinning widely at Eva. “You’re a superhero, you know that?”

  Eva graced him with a smile. “Blame Forbes. He called in a panic, said you’d just run into a burning house, and he could use a little backup. Asked me not to call it in. I’d more or less stopped listening at the part involving you and the burning house.” She launched into the reading of Greta’s rights as she finished cuffing the struggling and wailing woman. But even as she was finishing with that, Eva’s eyes were darting repeatedly to Sully.

  “We need to discuss this,” Forbes said, his face reading desperation in a way rivalled only by Greta’s.

  “In a minute,” Eva said. She circled the small group on the ground until she was standing in front of Sully. There, she unleashed the anticipated but flinch-inducing slap to his face.

  “Eva, honey?” Dez said. “Violence isn’t the answer, remember?”

  “Shut up, Dez.”

  “It’s okay,” Sully said. “I had it coming.”

  “Damn right,” Eva said. “Do you have any idea what you’ve put all of us through? Do you?”

  Eva wasn’t a crier, but there were tears rimming her lower lash line as she glared at him with a heat rivalled only by the fire raging behind her.

  “I know. I’m so sorry. More than you realize. But you need to know it killed me too.”

  Eva shook her head, plenty of anger lingering in the set of her jaw and the narrowing of her eyes. But she hugged him anyway, arms encasi
ng him like a vice.

  Greta had quieted for the most part, sobbing having tapered into gentler sniffling and weeping, allowing Forbes a chance for his question to be heard.

  “Does someone want to tell me what the hell is going on?”

  Dez spoke through a grin. “Once I’ve got a handle on it myself, I’ll fill you in. You hurt?”

  “I’m fine,” Forbes said. “But we need to discuss this. All of this. I mean, that is your brother, right? Your dead brother?”

  “And as far as everyone beyond us knows, he needs to stay that way,” Dez said. “As of now, Rhona and Lorinda believe Sully’s dead, and so does Gerhardt. As long as Greta keeps quiet, Sully’s safe.”

  “You know I can’t do that,” Forbes said. “I can’t just pretend something like that.”

  “Come on, man—”

  “Not unless you can do something for Greta. Look at her. She’s a mess. Let me take her somewhere, get her off whatever it is she’s on. Then let me help her disappear.”

  “She killed a man, Forbes,” Eva said. “And what’s more, it was premeditated.”

  “Carried out by a young woman messed up on drugs and brainwashed by her family. And let’s not forget the motive. The second Major Crimes starts pulling the case apart, Sullivan’s out in the open.”

  Dez raised an eyebrow. “So, what, you’re saying we give you Greta and keep quiet about her, you’ll keep your mouth shut about Sully?”

  “That’s what I’m saying.”

  “And Greta? How do we know she won’t say anything?”

  “I’m facing a life sentence, you moron,” she said. “And I already told you, I don’t give a damn about my family’s issues with Sullivan. He’s all yours.”

  Sully had known plenty of people with addictions, knew Greta wasn’t agreeing to go with Forbes to get clean; all she wanted was the first opportunity to escape so she could go back to her old world, her old ways. Maybe that included her family, maybe it didn’t. Right now, it didn’t matter all that much. The alternative wasn’t good for anyone.

  Dez’s next comment was directed at the person most likely to be the holdout, the idea of letting a killer walk free running contrary to everything Eva Braddock held dear. “If Sully’s exposed, Gerhardt’s going to want him back.”

  In the end, she was family first—just another piece of Sully’s old life that hadn’t changed in the two years he’d been away.

  “Get her out of here, Forbes,” Eva said. “And if I ever hear Sully’s name so much as breathed by anyone, I’ll know you or Greta reneged on this. And we’ll all go down together. You get me?”

  Forbes nodded, the relief clear. “You’ve got a deal.”

  “Don’t use that word. Just go.”

  Forbes helped Greta to her feet and released her from the handcuffs, handing them back to Eva. Then, to Greta’s evident chagrin, he slapped his own on her.

  “Just until you’re in the clear,” he said.

  Forbes gave Eva, Dez and Sully a final look as if assuring himself he was safe. Then he led Greta away.

  34

  Dez and Sully made it as far as the edge of the Riverview neighbourhood when Eva called from the police cruiser immediately in front of Dez’s SUV.

  “Forbes just called from the van,” she said. “Greta contacted her mother. She told Rhona that Sully didn’t make it out of the fire and that you’re coming after them, Dez. Rhona and Lorinda are leaving town. Sounds like they’ll be looking to lie low for a while.”

  Dez looked to his passenger, wanting to pass along the good news. But Sully was still asleep, having passed out within minutes of finding himself safe within Dez’s SUV.

  “And Greta?”

  “Forbes is taking a leave of absence from work. They’re heading somewhere so he can try to help her kick whatever she’s on. I guess Rhona asked her to join them, but Greta said she wanted some space for a while. There wasn’t much argument.”

  “Are we sure that’s safe, leaving Greta with Forbes? There’s still the possibility he’s the one who attacked her prior to all this starting.”

  “Believe me, I asked about that. I could hear her scoffing in the background. It was Brennan, not Forbes. Greta and Brennan started using meth a few months back. They’d been on a binge and had been up four or five days straight. Forbes had been trying to find Greta, and Brennan—paranoid as he was—got jealous. You know what happened after that. He beat her up pretty bad, but she didn’t want to get him in trouble, possibly land him back in Lockwood. She just disappeared from his life for a while, but returned as soon as she and her warped little family needed him.”

  “And you’re sure Rhona and Lorinda left town? I want to get Sully back to my place, but I don’t want to go there if they’re still around somewhere, watching.”

  “Shouldn’t he be in a hospital?”

  Dez gave it a couple of seconds, long enough for Eva to realize the problem with that suggestion.

  “Right,” she said. “No hospitals for him anymore. You know, you could bring him back to our place.”

  Dez caught on the word “our,” but then recognized Eva could simply be talking about herself and Kayleigh. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for Kayleigh to know about this just yet.”

  “I can’t lie to her, Dez. Neither can you.”

  “We wouldn’t be lying if she never asked.”

  “Well, I can’t keep it from her. She adores Sully. She’d never forgive any of us if we didn’t tell her.”

  “How can we be sure she won’t tell anyone else?” Dez said. “Kids talk, most times without thinking.”

  “Well, you know our kid,” Eva said. “She’s no gossip. And despite the fact she takes after you, she’s pretty mature for her age. If we tell her Sully will be in danger if anyone finds out about him, she won’t tell. You know that as well as I do.”

  In all honesty, he didn’t. The saddest part about the past couple of years was that his time with Kayleigh had become so limited. He’d missed so much. And while he knew his daughter, he wasn’t sure sometimes if the Kayleigh he knew was the person she was now or the girl she had been when his life fell out from under him. The fact was, Eva knew their little girl now far better than Dez did. He didn’t begrudge Eva that time or that joy, but he hated the fact he hadn’t been there to share in it.

  “Dez? You okay?”

  “Yeah. Sorry. Just thinking. You’re probably right. I’ll bring him by sometime soon. But I need to keep him with me for now, all right? I don’t think it’s a good idea for him to be there, especially if I’m not nearby.”

  “Actually, I’d meant for you to come home too.”

  The offer had Dez grinning ear to ear, his brain on a high-speed train through a future he was suddenly envisioning in which this eggshell-thin reconciliation became rock solid. He saw poker nights with his buddies in the garage, while Eva had the girls over for wine and television, trick or treating with Kayleigh, lazy Sunday mornings with Eva in bed or on the back deck with a coffee as she chattered on about her plans for the yard.

  Dez forced himself to apply the mental brakes. As much as he’d love to be back there, to work on convincing his wife he had his shit back together and that his stay should be permanent, now wasn’t the time. There were questions about Sully Dez needed to address first, namely how big and widespread the danger to him was. Until he could ascertain that, Dez couldn’t risk the rest of his family.

  “I wish I could come home. There’s nothing in the world I want more. But it’s too risky, Eva. You and me, we can handle it. But until I’ve got a better grasp on what Sully’s up against here, we can’t risk exposing Kayleigh any more than she already is. I’ll still bring Sully by to see her, but I need to take him back to my apartment with me after. Or else we’ll find somewhere else to hole up for a bit. But I really think we need to play this safe for now.”

  He was met with silence on the other end, and Dez gave Eva the time she needed to recognize what he’d said as indisputable truth. A
nd then, at last, she spoke one of her own.

  “I miss you. I miss our little family.”

  “I do too. You know that.”

  “Promise me you’ll be careful, that you’ll keep your head on straight. And for God’s sake, Dez, promise me you’ll stop drinking with your park buddies.”

  “I can do that.”

  “Good. Take care of Sully, but let him take care of you too, okay?”

  “I will, babe. Thanks.”

  “Don’t call me babe, Snowman.”

  Pax was a large black streak of fur charging out of Miss Crichton’s apartment, stopping only once he reached Sully. As the dog whined and danced around his human’s legs, tail wagging hard enough to take out a small child, Dez approached his neighbour.

  “Hope no one else is at home to catch that display,” Dez said. “I wouldn’t want to get you in trouble.”

  But Miss Crichton wasn’t focused on the elated dog; her eyes were on Sully.

  “Is that Sullivan?”

  “He usually goes by Sully.” Then to his brother, “Hey, Sull? You wanna come here a minute? There’s someone you should meet.”

  Sully had been kneeling, letting Pax treat his face like an ice cream cone. Now he walked over, gracing the woman with a soft smile. “Sorry. Wish I could’ve cleaned up a bit first. My brother told me about you, about what you did for my mother and me. I don’t know how to thank you.”

  Miss Crichton’s age frequently set her eyes to watering, but Dez suspected there was more to the tears this time as she closed the distance and wrapped her arms around Sully. Her words were partially muffled by his jacket. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t save her.”

  “Don’t be sorry. If it wasn’t for you, she would have died in that place.”

  Miss Crichton stepped away, sniffling and wiping her tears away with her fingers. “She died anyway.”

  “But not because of anything you did or didn’t do,” Sully said. “She thought she’d be safe going home, that no matter what they thought of her, they wouldn’t turn her away when she really needed them. She was wrong.”